An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus can transmit ultrasonic into an object, receive the ultrasonic reflection echo signal of a living organ from the reflected wave, and perform signal processing on the signal to produce a monochrome sectional image of a part to be diagnosed having intensities as the ultrasonic reflectivities as described in Patent Literature 1. Three-dimensional volume data can be produced from a plurality of such monochrome sectional images and rendered to produce and display a monochrome three-dimensional image. Patent Literature 1 has also disclosed a technique of providing a two-dimensional elasticity image and a three-dimensional elasticity image in which an elasticity value (such as strain and coefficient of elasticity) representing the hardness of the part to be diagnosed is represented by a hue.
Patent Literature 2 has disclosed a technique in which a monochrome three-dimensional image is produced such that a harder organ is shown more opaquely and a softer organ is shown more transparently to allow intuitive recognition of the shape and the volume of a hard part or a soft part when a three-dimensional elasticity image is displayed over the monochrome three-dimensional image. Patent Literature 2 has also disclosed a method in which an arbitrary cross section is taken from three-dimensional volume data of monochrome sectional images to produce and display the monochrome sectional image of the arbitrary cross section.
Patent Literature 3 has disclosed a technology in which a monochrome sectional image is added to a two-dimensional elasticity image at a set ratio to produce and display a combined image, and structure information and elasticity information of an organ are obtained from a single image.